Tag Archives: Blogging Carnival

Autumn is traditionally the time to harvest crops and to prepare for winter by clearing the fields, canning and storing food.

When I was growing up in Russia we always had “dacha” – a summer garden, often with a house and “banya” (Russian sauna) – where we spent time from around April til late September planting, growing, harvesting various crops and just enjoying our summer days with family and friends. As much as I really didn’t like working there as a child, I am grateful that this place fed us through difficult times of economic crisis where we sometimes literally had nothing but potatoes to eat. Plus, canning gave us all those delicacies we never dreamed of buying in the shops (it is only now we can!). I have seen my mother and my sister through making all sorts of jams and pickles, various sauces and canned vegetables ready-to-cook for soups and stews. Back in the day we had a book or two with many recipes, plus my mom kept a little hand-written recipe book with recipes from friends and family.

Today’s post is a part of the traditional MKB blogging carnival and I have asked fellow bloggers to share their experiences and stories about growing and harvesting crops in their counties and their families.

Leanna of All Done Monkey shares her experience on apple harvesting with her son. They like going to the Apple Hill and enjoy various fun activities besides apple picking. Read more about the fascinating time you can offer children at Apple Hill in Leanna’s post .

Carol of A French American Life shares about introducing harvesting to her children through various holidays and activities. Read more about it in her post on Harvest Time.

How do you celebrate Autumn? Do you expose your children to the experience of harvesting? Are there any interesting harvesting traditions in your country that are still being practiced? Please share with us!

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We don’t play any traditional games in our household. We do play board games, such as Monopoly, Ludo, Mastermind, Boggle and Scrabble. When we go out, we try to enjoy the most out of it.

Our favorite places to go to are various parks that we have in Zhuhai. We take frisbee with us or a ball and we just enjoy the nature.

Few weeks ago we travelled to Guangzhou (the capital of Guangdong province, China, where we are residing). And our friends took us to a park there. What fascinated us was the number of gymnastic ribbon wands being played with! When I was a child, I was mesmerized by the Olympic gymnasts who did wonders with those wands. But they weren’t easily available so I used to find a stick and tie a regular ribbon to it, pretending I was a gymnast. I even tried to join the gymnastics at some point of time but was turned down because I was… too tall!

So seeing all those ribbons brought so many warm memories to me. And miss T was excited to see those so we got one for her!

I think both of us played good 30 minutes, twirling the ribbon around in various shapes. So much fun!

And I could see everyone from children to adults enjoying as much as we did.

I can’t call it a traditional game, but it is definitely something adored by Chinese population in Guangzhou and I am so happy we got to play with the ribbon wand! Even the baby was mesmerized by it and giggled loud when big sister was running around her with the ribbon.

What are some games you play with your children? Any traditional games from your childhood? Share in the comments and if you have a blog – post the link!

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Every country, nation, culture, every family has various traditions.

In China Spring is filled with various days to celebrate: people take time to visit Peach Gardens during Peach Blossom; they honour their late family members by Sweeping Tombs during Qing Ming Festival ; they celebrate Labour day on May 1st…

It happened so that every Spring our family has a new tradition to celebrate: our Anniversary. And it happens that it falls on Qing Ming Festival which makes it even more memorable.

Let me tell you a story…

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Once upon a time. There was a girl and a youth. They grew up in very different parts of the world. They were very different, but had one thing in common: they were Baha’is.

Some time in 2001, the girl travelled all the way to India to attend a Baha’i conference in Bangalore, followed by volunteering at the Baha’i Academy in a town of Panchgani. There she met the youth for the first time: they were paired up for the Equality dance during a Dance Workshop practice. The youth and the girl danced, his feet kept stepping on hers, her palms were sweating. They parted their ways after that but by some chance they occasionally kept in touch over email and chat as good friends.

The same year the girl moved to China where she remained working and going on with her life. The youth moved back to Tanzania.

In late 2006, young man moved to China, to a completely different city. And around the end of 2007 the young man and the girl started communicating more and more. Finally, at the beginning of 2008 the young man confessed his feelings to the girl, which spun her world around, turned it upside down and made her realize she, in fact, had the same strong feelings for him.

They met after 7 years in Beijing. The young man proposed right away and she accepted. They married on April 5th, 2008 – two souls, born and raised in different countries, meant to meet again and start their family in China.

This is our love story. And every year we remember and remind ourselves to cherish what we have.

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We don’t do any fancy celebrations. My husband always has some amazing videos made from pictures throughout the years put together. We treat ourselves to a nice meal and dessert. Since we have children, we make the best out of spending this day as a family.

Our wedding was very simple yet very memorable to us. Dearest friend, Elika Mahony, offered her beautiful home for us to hold the Baha’i ceremony.

Originally we hoped to have the ceremony at her lovely garden. But the day before it became quite cold and even snowed a bit. So the ground was wet.

To our surprise, when we came to Elika’s house, the cherry tree she had planted there blossomed overnight. And the day was more or less warm and sunny!

We had our ceremony with prayers, vows and ring exchange. So while everyone else was celebrating QingMing Festival, burning paper gifts and praying to the ancestors, we were celebrating our union and the beginning of new life together!

Then we had some finger foods (it was a blend of Russian, Indian and Persian cuisines) and refreshments.

It was a simple gathering of dear friends and families together. We didn’t aim for anything fancy and so it was just that – simple and cozy.

This year we are celebrating our 5th anniversary and we hope to have many more years together.

What are your Spring Traditions? Is there something you always do with your family or friends? Tell me about it!

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This post is a part of Multicultural Blogging Carnival. Please, visit Kid World Citizen on April 11th to read more posts on Spring Traditions.

This post is a bit of a blast from the past: I am re-organizing my blog and moving some pages content to regular posts!

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Whether you are familiar with our wonderful Multicultural Kid Blogs group or not, I am sure you’ll be interested in reading about these wonderful traditions brought to you by these multicultural moms and dads!

Bringing up multicultural kids can be challenging at times. If you search, you will find that there are lots of moms and dads who blog/write about it. We celebrate multiculturalism by Multicultural Kids Blogging Carniva featuring Winter Traditions in different families around the world.

You can find out more about all these bloggers and more by following us on Twitter (#multiculturalkids), subscribing to the feed on Facebook and following us on Pinterest!

Celebrating Winter Traditions

Winter is often and mainly associated with Christmas and New Year. This time around Valerie and Alex of Glittering Muffins came up with Snowman pancakes! And to celebrate multilingualism they posted about it in French too!

Not many people know what other days are celebrated around the globe during the winter season. Melissa of Where Going Havo? introduces St. Nicolas day celebrated in Czech Republic and Slovakia on 5th of December.

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